I have been quietly moving clients out of AMF over the past 2 years.  Their overlap is ridiculous.  I use an ETF portfolio and charge a modest fee and do it myself.  Much less headaches.......

I still have several million at AMF.  I see my wholesaler once a year and he hasn't bought me lunch or anything in 12 years...........

You're an RIA and you use American Funds?  That's different.

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I disagree that AMF is the best to use for A shares.  I think Franklin and Blackrock are better.  I prefer Franklin, as they have some great equity managers (Mutual Series, Templeton international managers), and some great bond managers (Franklin lineup, Templeton Global Bond), but their big advantage is that they have some average to very good funds in many categories.  AMF simply has some above average large cap domestic value and international large cap value funds.  Their fixed income is adequate AT BEST.  And they have virtually nothing else worth looking at.  Some of their style weaknesses have become very apparent the past 2 years.   

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Completely agree with the highlighted area and most of the rest except I really don't use A shares.  I use C or fee to do multi manager portfolios.  Too bad Jfor you Jones only pays you 35% on C shares!!  When I first started I did a lot of AF, but really stopped putting new money in their funds about 3 years ago due to poor performance and the fact that their funds are redundant and they don't have any good bond funds.

Diana--I think their wholesaler approach is hurting them with brokers in several ways.

1.  Their wholesalers must be trained just to talk about their funds.  What I mean by this is the wholesalers that add the most value are the ones who look to help you build your business and realize that you will use them where appropriate in your biz.  American funds wholesalers just show up and pitch how great their funds and their philosophy is.  It is a tired old story that didn't work in the market sell off.  So when the funds perf became disappointing I think that is why we are seeing record outflows due to they fact that their wholesalers really aren't very helpful.

2.  If you ask American Funds to speak at a seminar or support the seminar it seems that they must include discussion of their products in their presentations.  I don't want a product specific presentation at my seminars.

3.  I have actually had wholesalers from other fund companies tell me how their funds fit with another firms fund and how they complement each other.  American funds people only push their product.  I think their training is way off for their wholesalers in order for them to be truly helpful to the FA.

4.  Their funds are too similar to each other with a lot of overlap.  Their bond funds are poor for the most part.  They lack a lot of strategies within their family such as:

Reits/floating rate bonds/Tips/GNMA's/domestic small and mid cap/

I would add, at least at Eddie Jones, that Advisors are no longer willing to "pay" to use American Funds. Why would I want to use a lower breakpoint schedule and wait 13 months for trails on American Funds A-Shares, when I can use a competitor that has a better fund lineup, better performance, and is going to pay me better to do it?

American Funds is/was entirely too arrogant on the relationship they have with Eddie J. Bring in a new/new, give them an ICA Mountain Chart, gather the assets at a minimal cost and cut them loose before a single trail is paid - pretty good set-up!

Legend and Pocket are spot on.

In addition I'll add that a chunk of their outflows at EDJ are specifically due to Advisory Solutions.  I know lots of FAs who targeted their American Funds clients and told them the big advantages to a multi manager approach vs an all AMF portfolio. 

Also, you're seeing a lot of the new FAs using other fund families besides American in much greater numbers than 5-7 years ago.  I think companies like Franklin, Hartford, MFS, and Oppenheimer have done a great job pointing out the pitfalls of working only with American Funds.  I know I have a hard time telling the new FAs to sell only American Funds like my mentor did 10+ years ago. 

Just noticed that since this thread started, the idiom used in the title has become racist.